On May 12, 2025, the Sarasota City Commission held a special meeting at City Hall beginning at 1:30 PM to receive direction on the process for recruiting the next City Manager. The meeting was called to order by Mayor Liz Alpert and adjourned at 3:03 PM. All five commissioners were present. The discussion focused on selecting a consultant to guide the search, establishing a timeline, identifying essential characteristics of the next City Manager, and considering an interim replacement for the current Interim City Manager, whose service was expected to end in September.
All right, good afternoon, everyone. I want to call to order this uh Monday, May 12th, 2025 special city commission meeting. And uh we'll begin with the invocation by the city auditoring clerk griggs. Please stand. Heavenly Father, we affirm our faith in thee. We seek your divine strength, wisdom, and guidance in the deliberations that affect the lives of each of the citizens of our community. In that name we pray, amen. All right, and Commissioner Aaron Koch, would you lead us in the pledge? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay. And do we have a uh um motion on the proposed agenda schedule? So moved. Um we have our proposed agenda schedule and also too, if you don't mind asking the mayor, do we have any changes to the order of the day as well? Okay, yeah, that was the next one. Okay, next okay. All right, second. Okay, uh Commissioner Batti moved approval of the proposed agenda schedule. Commissioner A. Her and Kotch seconded if you'll vote, Commissioners. Is that your vote? Yes, yes, passes unanimously. Now, are there any changes to the order of the day? No, Mayor. I gotta put on the record. Good. Thank you. Thank you. All right, uh citizens input. Uh do we have anybody that's speaking on anything other than the issue at hand? No, we just have um public input for the or the item. All right, then we'll move uh directly to item two one. Um regarding the city manager process, and I'm gonna call upon the city auditoring clerk and the city attorney uh to make the presentation. Okay, thank you. Um good afternoon, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners. Um, just want to give a little bit of a brief introduction for myself and um Mr. Polzett. Um the purpose of today's item is to receive direction from the commission regarding how the city manager recruitment process will be conducted as part of this discussion. We seek your input on several key topics, including the selection process for the professional search firm, defining the commission's involvement in that selection, establishing a budget and scope of work, identifying essential qualifications and characteristics for the next city manager, reviewing the duties outlined in the city charter, and considering authorization for the city auditor and clerk and city attorney to use the city manager staff support throughout this process. This discussion with your guidance will help establish a clear and transparent effective framework moving forward, and key topics for a commission input, including process structure, selection criteria, involvement levels, budget, job expectations, and staffing. So we'll go ahead and get started here. I'll let Mr. Um City Attorney Polzak chime in as well. Sure. Thank you, Commission. And um, as the clerk said, we do have some topics in the agenda that we'd ask you to address. Um is mentioned briefly, you know, the process timeline and criteria for the search firm selection, the commission's involvement in that, um, what level of involvement you do want to have, the budget and scope of work for the firm, if that's the direction you are deciding to go. The essential characteristics and criteria, at least a discussion or a beginning discussion of that, what you'd like to task the search firm with searching for in a in a candidate. Um again, keeping in mind the city charter and the duties that are dictated in that for the city manager. And then as we're charter officials and ourselves, what authority you want to designate for us to I know the city manager's made it clear he's offered the full support of his staff in this endeavor, but um as we report to you just having your involvement and directing that authority, and just it's more so for you all as well to know that you know, and you be aware that we will need to use the city manager's staff to help with this process regarding finance procurement, HR as well. And Mr. Jeff Co has uh stated that everybody's at our disposal, but we just want to make sure the commission is good and aware of that as well.